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All Hail Zinedine Cygan

I think we can put this Thierry Henry nonsense to bed now, can’t we? Last night he played more centrally, scored twice, in doing so taking his tally to three goals in three games, (and just one short of Ian Wright’s all-time Arsenal record). He’s a class apart that man.

The first was a solid right-footer from a sumptuous Reyes pass, and the second a dink of marvellous dinkiness. Pure TH.

Seriously though, I think reports of Arsenal’s demise are somewhat premature. In addition to scoring four, we missed a penalty and forced Fulham’s keeper into making a hatful of saves (how many saves can you squeeze into a hat? I’ve never had that question answered satisfactorily).

OK, so they created several good chances themselves in addition to the excellent goal they scored, and we could certainly tighten up in that department. I’m not sure why Senderos was not playing, but Cygan came in and, defensively, I got the feeling he was being targeted somewhat.

Of course, nobody reckoned on his (hitherto latent) terrifying array of firepower in front of goal. One off his shiny bonce and one off his cultured left foot. He’s a defender in the Dion Dublin mould, able to switch between mopping up at the rear and terrorising defences, almost willy-nilly.

Well, he was for one night, anyway.

Overall, an excellent performance and a great game to watch, made so in part by Fulham’s willingness to have a go and cause us problems. Contrast that with our opening home game.

“When he plays like that there is no better player in the world”, Wenger said, referring, I think, to Pascal Cygan (or possibly Thierry Henry).